Makiko Wakai is the New Asian Currents program coordinator of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF), that aims to showcase and bring together emerging filmmakers from across the region.

Ongoing film related works include: FAV (feminist active documentary video festa) that distributes/screens independent films in Japan; video collective Video Juku that works to document and archive testimonials of former “comfort women”; Kyoto-University-based Visual Documentary Project that showcases theme-specific short documentary films across Southeast Asia; and a decade-plus documentary project centering around a Japanese-Filipino family living in Asahi village, Yamagata, which led her to spend a year in Bataan, Philippines (API fellowship 2012-2013). Now she serve as the programme advisor of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).